“Our weapon is our truth” – President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

Creatives for Ukraine is a new platform that encourages the global creative community to share photographs, images, illustrations and art to “give a face” to the War in Ukraine. 

While the creative community often try to do what they can in reaction to world events, the efforts – which involve sharing a hashtag and gathering momentum – sometimes get lost in the noise and miss an opportunity to make a real impact. Creatives For Ukraine hopes to address this issue and go a step further by providing a platform where these images are available to download at a higher resolution, so they can be spread more easily. “We want to highlight the digital art and illustrations that can draw attention to the serious and difficult subject matter, to show to the world the real face of this war against the people of Ukraine and to express solidarity with the suffering nation,” Justina adds.

Some of the first to join the platform include famous Lithuanian creators Karolis Strautniekas and Eglė Plytnikaitė, whose work has graced the pages of several international publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vice, The Independent, and more. Illustrator Strautniekas, whose interpretation of Putin’s portrait has already circulated widely on social media, says it’s important for him to show his support with the tool he uses best: an illustration. “I think today we should use whatever power lies in our hands to stand up against violence and tyranny,” he says. “They say it’s better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times. What about seeing something a thousand times? Maybe that would reinforce even bigger support from the world.”

Illustrations shared on the Creatives For Ukraine platform are open for individual users and media outlets all around the world to use when they need to illustrate the situation in Ukraine. The platform will not have any commercial use but will ask to credit creatives if work is shared elsewhere. You can submit your work via the platform. The site also encourages visitors to donate to Blue/Yellow, a humanitarian charity founded in Lithuania to support Ukraine.